If one considers a typical infrastructure in a private house, it is normally possible to find there both communication terminals, usually in the form of landline and/or mobile radio telephones, and a series of entertainment terminals, i.e. consumer electronics units, audio terminals or video terminals, for example television sets.
The majority of users are well versed in operating the entertainment units, since they made their entrance into users' homes a relatively long time ago now. In particular, modern television sets, for example, are particularly simple to operate and program using menu guides, and this can normally also be done in a convenient way using a remote control.
On the other hand, modern telecommunication terminals or systems frequently have functions which are, in principle, advantageous to a user, such as an internal telephone book containing telephone numbers associated with persons' names, call-number display, and also have functionalities such as call diversion, brokering, call hold, etc.
However, many users find the operation and programming of such telecommunication units to be too complicated, which means that these advantages are exploited only rarely. This can usually be attributed to a complicated menu guide on the telecommunication units, but particularly to the small information displays and also the small displays with only a slight opportunity for display.
For today's communication systems, including private branch exchanges, for example, the following administration options exist:                using a connected telephone;        using a specific PC tool, with administration being able to take place locally or remotely;        using a web browser, likewise locally or remotely;        using a terminal connection, for example Telnet;        using a network management environment.        
However, none of these options present any real facilitation for the “normal”, average home use, and often even complicate the operaton of the communication systems, since the options listed are not user interfaces which are known to an average user.